Top 10 Battles for the Control of Iraq

[Yrys]

Here are some key battles from the violent history of Iraq.

For more than 4500 years many peoples have fought for dominance in what is now modern day Iraq (Mesopotamia). Though it is the United States and its "coalition of the willing" that now militarily occupies the country, the Greeks, Romans, Ottomans, and British have all buried their dead -- not to mention the indigenous peoples, too -- in this land.

Iraq rests in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the surrounding plain, lying at the heart of the fabled "Fertile Crescent." Much fought-over, its last native-born rulers before the 20th century were Nebuchadnezzar II and his descendants, who fell to Cyrus the Persian in 539 BC.

From the earliest times, the struggles for the region have often been dictated by the need for natural resources.

2525 BC - Battle between Lagash and Umma
Around 2300 BC - Military campaigns of Sargon the Great
Around 1263 BC - Assyrian King Shalmaneser I defeated Shattuara II of Hanigalbat
331 BC - Battle of Gaugamela
53 BC - Battle of Carrhae
637 AD - Battle of Al-Qadisiyah
1258 AD - Mongols besiege Baghdad
1534 AD - Capture of Baghdad by Suleyman the Magnificent
1915 AD - Siege of Kut-al-Amara
2003 AD - Operation Iraqi Freedom

 

[Infanteer]

2525 BC - Battle between Lagash and Umma

That was a big one - did you see the movie?

 

[a_majoor]

Interesting that this battle wasn't included: Cunaxa in Babylon (401 BC)

For those who can't place it, the Greek mercenary contingent belonging to the loosing faction in this attempted regicide gained immortal fame as the "Ten Thousand"

 

[ghyslyn]

Interesting, I never knew exactly where the battle of carrhae really was located, learn something new everyday.

 

[Mike Baker]

That was a big one - did you see the movie?

What was it called?

 

[ghyslyn]

I searched it and I see why I was confused, the battle of Carrhae was actually in south-eastern Turkey, but it makes sense in this list as Crassus sought control of the lands that are now modern day Iraq.